55. The Slasher’s Identity

The goddess snapped her fingers once again, and a video started streaming.

“Everyone, this mansion that you see nestled in a corner of this quiet high-end residential area is the home of the modern day necromancer, Tooru Kizaki!”

It was a Japanese talk show.
A familiar middle-aged female reporter with heavy makeup that emphasised her nostrils turns her face and approaches the camera.
The sight of a high-end residential area that even I know the name of was projected behind her.
In the image, a crowd of people from the press could be seen standing in front of a noticeably large mansion.

“Wow, wow! What is this!?
Some sort of scene is being projected on this ordinary board!?”

After finally recovering from her petrification, Melby made the clichéd action of going around to the back of the display to peer inside.
She asked the goddess who was cheerfully watching on,

“…Is this the aforementioned slasher?”

“Yes.
The program is a little vulgar, but this was the most detailed one.
Wouldn’t you at least want to know Tooru Kizaki’s profile for when you take him on hereafter?”

The female reporter pushed the intercom button of the single mansion.
Next to that intercom hung an expensive-looking stone nameplate with “Kizaki” written on it.

“――Hello?Who might this be”

“I am Nikaidou, from Fusou TV.”

“――I’m sorry but I’m not taking any interviews.”

“The world won’t consent to that!For your son to have caused such an incident, how do you feel as a parent of his――”

The intercom cut off with a click.

The reporter relentlessly continued to ring the intercom even after that, but there was no response.
In the end, the relay ended with the camera aimed at a curtain-covered window of the mansion.

Then in the studio, the commentator used the panel to explain the details of the incident with a know-it-all look.

Tooru Kizaki was 34 years old at the time of the incident.
He was four years older than me, so in a broad sense, he could be said to be of the same generation as me.

But as far as his personal history goes, it’s better to say that the worlds we live in differ.

With the director of a pharmaceutical company as his father and the daughter of the manager of a large hospital as his mother, Kizaki was a typical medical elite.
After graduating as the top student of the medical department at Tokyo University, he gained clinical experience at a teaching hospital in America. When he returned to Japan afterwards, he exploited his reputation as a genius surgeon.

But behind his brilliant mask, he was the chairman of a cult circle that worshipped the devil (Beelzebub).
Their secret doctrine was very thorough, but police came to mark them secretly after people started disappearing one after another from within the circle in the recent years.

However, Kizaki was smart and had vast connections in various circles so they couldn’t find many leads on him.

The situation no doubt shifted on “that day”.
Kizaki appeared on the road in front of my regular game centre after he slaughtered his ex-wife and shot the detective marking him with a pistol.

After killing three people on the street, Kizaki got into a scuffle with a male civilian bystander (me).
He then died when this man stabbed him in the heart with a knife he had while covering for a high school girl who was petrified with fear.

――The man was accused of being the slasher and was shot to death by the police officers who came running afterwards, as was reported over and over.

However, three――if you include Kizaki’s ex-wife, the detective tailing him, as well as the apartment manager who got caught up with the detective, it would come to six people――what was brought to light from this slasher incident where six lives were lost was merely the beginning.

After Kizaki’s death, the police raided the house in the metropolitan area where Kizaki lived.
Inside the house valued at $500 million, which overshadowed his reputation as a genius surgeon, was a basement that didn’t exist on the blueprints.
The confinement cages fitted with iron lattices were still cute.
Aside from the room lined with cages, a “torture chamber” filled with many torture devices and a “black magic chamber” (both termed by the media) that resembled a witch’s laboratory were also prepared underground.
And after a thorough search, a giant “freezer” was discovered behind a concealed door deep inside the black magic chamber.

An innumerable amount of――severed human heads, entrails, skin tanned like leather, bare muscles, blood preserved in glass jars, and skeletons with flesh clinging to them were methodically sorted and carefully stored within the freezer.
Furthermore, many of the severed heads were mummified with their expressions full of agony and terror.

According to the police, the corpses that were discovered numbered a hundred at the minimum.
It was announced that a DNA analysis was currently in progress, and the numbers may increase further based on the results.

“Based on the notebook found in the so-called “Black Magic Chamber” of modern necromancer Kizaki, he believes in a fictitious god known as Evil God Mongue…sues――”

“Monguenues, isn’t it.”

“Ah, yes, Monguenues.It seems like Kizaki offered that flesh, blood and entrails to the fictitious god thus named.――This is a copy of Kizaki’s notebook that was released to the public the other day.”

Saying that, the commentator tapped on the studio panel.

As befitting of a doctor, displayed inside the notebook were accurate sketches of stolen property, with what looked like annotations written in tiny characters densely packed around it.

But that wasn’t what caught my attention.

“――Magic symbols!”

That’s right. There were magic symbols written down in the notebook.
There were mistakes here and there, but there were letters that spelled out “Evil God Monguenues” in Marquekt’s common language.
Next to that was an annotation in katakana saying “Monguenues”.

“Muroki-san, what are these unfamiliar characters?”

The announcer inquired.

“According to Kizaki’s annotations, they are the letters of Marquekt, another world where the Evil God Monguenues resides in.”

“Another world, is it…”

The announcer’s face looked as though they were trying to suppress their laughter.

“Of course, they’re just Kizaki’s delusions.It’s unclear when Kizaki was first enslaved by this delusion, but there are anonymous posts online who claim to have deciphered Kizaki’s notebook and it has become a hot topic.According to the posts, the language of Kizaki’s delusions can be seen to possess a consistent structure that is enough to classify it as a language.”

“That… What does that mean?”

“As an expert of criminal psychology, I have to say that it doesn’t have any special meaning.It simply provides evidence to support Kizaki’s high intelligence; the contents of his delusions are insignificant.To try to pick out the meaning in it means stepping foot in the delusional world that captivated Kizaki. There is the fear of mental instability, as well as the fear of temporarily being haunted by a psychosis-like notion.In reality, there seems to have been an increase of people on the internet proposing that Kizaki’s case is a prophet receiving correspondence from another world.”

The reporter named Furuhashi thrust a microphone at the solidly built man in his 60s that was Kizaki’s father.

…I also felt this way in my previous life, but they sure have the guts to do this kind of thing.

Kizaki’s father turned his face away from the camera with a grimace, and walked at a brisk pace towards the black car he had hired.
The TV camera followed the car Kizaki’s father had boarded, then the screen returned to that of the studio.

“It was stated in a previous interview that Kizaki Tooru’s father, Mr Kizaki Hiromu, did not intend to resign from his position as the director of Daishowa Pharmaceuticals.What do you think for him to not even have a word of apology in regards to his son causing such an incident, despite being someone involved with medical care?”

The announcer commented.
Comments baring the people’s feelings such as “the parents can’t be held responsible for the actions of an adult over 30” and “that’s unrelated, they should take responsibility for raising such a monster!!” appeared in the viewer’s response column below the screen.

This time, the criminal psychologist commentator opened his mouth.

“My goodness, what Kizaki, who is a natural-born medical elite and referred to as a genius surgeon, did is nothing but disgusting.On the other hand, I can’t hide my surprise that a young otaku, who was hanging around the game centre all day, instead of going on a date despite it being a holiday, did such a heroic deed.”

“How boisterous!”

Ignore that!

“It looks like this statement became an issue on the internet, causing a flood of protests.
Remarks claiming that this commentator was bringing down the program and such.”

“Serves them right.”

It’s been a while since I said that.

“――Now then, changing the subject, at the world’s largest gaming tournament sponsored by American search engine Glimpse, REVOLVE, a Japanese high-school girl――”

“…That’s enough, right?”

The goddess snapped her fingers again. The displayed image paused.
The news was a little worrying but… since I reincarnated, it’s a story that no longer concerns me.

“You were called a variety of names in your former world, weren’t you?
In Marquekt, that would give you a dozen titles.
Because it’s a rare chance, I’ll just convert one of them into a title of this world.
《God Kagi》, 《Tomonori the Brave》, 《Otaku Hero》, 《Young Otaku》, 《Godly》, 《Hero of Tragedy》, 《Real Slam Fighter》――Now, which one will you choose?”

A difficult decision has arrived.

“Well, although it’s rare…”

“Eeeh? It seems you don’t get into things easily.
Then I’ll choose for you, okay?
Let’s see, would 《Tomonori the Brave》 or 《Otaku Hero》 be better?”

“No, those are the ones I don’t want the most!”

“Then choose properly.
I’ve already used my quota for Gifts so I can’t not give you one.”

“Ugh… T-then, I’ll go with 《Hero of Tragedy》.”

I’m also drawn to 《Real Slam Fighter》, but it has been copyrighted.
If we’re talking about a name that won’t cause any dissonance when seen by someone from Marquekt then this is the only one.
Names like ‘the Brave’ were clearly in bad taste…

“That’s the title the foreign media gave when reporting this series of incidents.
Within Japan, it was exclusively ‘hero’ though.”

“I didn’t ask about that.”

“Besides that, the cabinet ministers also spoke of conferring the People’s Honour Award to you.
Thanks to the poor response towards your case, there was a reshuffle among a few of the cabinet members and the popularity of the political power dropped, but it looks like they were aiming for that leverage.
Sure enough, it seems they were flamed on the internet.
Well, if they did confer it to you, I would have let you collect it as a souvenir at least.”

“…There’s a lot I want to retort on, but firstly, it seems that Goddess-sama has been browsing the internet too much.”

“I began by gathering information for your sake, but it was so interesting I unintentionally…
I even started a blog recently, you know?”

“As if I care!”

The goddess ignored my retort, and the large display suddenly disappeared.
Melby, who had been staring intently at the display, extended her arm with a reluctant “Ahh…”.

The power of the internet is still almighty that it can even drag a Goddess into its clutches. I’m glad he had some recognition in the other world for his sacrifice. I’m actually amazed that the cops weren’t sued for the mistaken shooting. Thanks for the chapter.

I have a feeling that the girl that our main character saved has something to do with that last news story:
“――Now then, changing the subject, at the world’s largest gaming tournament sponsored by American search engine Glimpse, REVOLVE, a Japanese high-school girl――”